William Shakespeare’s “King Lear” is a play about the betrayal between children and their fathers. As the play progresses it continues to spiral into more and more chaotic scenes. While blame is obviously put onto King Lear himself for sending away the only daughter that had truly loved him which started quite a lot of trouble in itself, the Lord of Gloucester is also worthy of blame for the continuous chaos.
To begin, if Gloucester never committed adultery, Edmund would never have been conceived. When asked whether or not Edmund was Gloucester’s son by Kent, he simply answered, “His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge. I have so/ often blushed to acknowledge him that now I am/ brazed to it” (I.1). Clearly, while Edmund was still young Gloucester was once embarrassed to admit his adultery act, so he knew what he had done was wrong is society’s eyes. Now with a second-class citizen to look after it is …show more content…
While King Lear’s recent behavior had created tension in the Cornwall home, the additional news that their host for the evening was committing treason did not sit well with the couple. With all of their pent up anger and frustration towards King Lear, the couple did not hesitate to project their feelings out on Gloucester, “‘See’ ‘t shalt thou never.--Fellow, hold the chair./-- Upon these eyes of thing I’ll set my foot/” (III.7). Cornwall and Regan had allowed Gloucester to answer their questions, although the answers he had provided did not match up with their own assumptions, so Cornwall easily removed the eyes of this old man. Gloucester’s secret had ultimately caused the death of a servant and the death of the Duke of Cornwall, in addition to his own torture through the removal of his eyes. Had he remained faithful to the kingdom, two more humans would have lived, he could have remained on the good side of Cornwall, and he would still be able to
To begin, if Gloucester never committed adultery, Edmund would never have been conceived. When asked whether or not Edmund was Gloucester’s son by Kent, he simply answered, “His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge. I have so/ often blushed to acknowledge him that now I am/ brazed to it” (I.1). Clearly, while Edmund was still young Gloucester was once embarrassed to admit his adultery act, so he knew what he had done was wrong is society’s eyes. Now with a second-class citizen to look after it is …show more content…
While King Lear’s recent behavior had created tension in the Cornwall home, the additional news that their host for the evening was committing treason did not sit well with the couple. With all of their pent up anger and frustration towards King Lear, the couple did not hesitate to project their feelings out on Gloucester, “‘See’ ‘t shalt thou never.--Fellow, hold the chair./-- Upon these eyes of thing I’ll set my foot/” (III.7). Cornwall and Regan had allowed Gloucester to answer their questions, although the answers he had provided did not match up with their own assumptions, so Cornwall easily removed the eyes of this old man. Gloucester’s secret had ultimately caused the death of a servant and the death of the Duke of Cornwall, in addition to his own torture through the removal of his eyes. Had he remained faithful to the kingdom, two more humans would have lived, he could have remained on the good side of Cornwall, and he would still be able to